Almost Another Day
by Thorn In Your Side
Summary: Ichigo and Rukia have a talk about Kaien and other uncomfortable things on a dark night. And the conclusion they arrive at is...


**Almost Another Day**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. **

**A/N: I may be the nerd that writes stories for songs, but you are the nerd that likes them. **

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x**

Look.

It's simple!

There are some things you can hide from, and some things that find you anyway. There are some things you can avoid, and some things that face you anyway. Some things should be left in the dark. This is not one of them.

Ichigo **_knew_** that. This was not one of those things. No matter how little Rukia wanted to talk about it, he had to bring it up.

"Hey. Do I remind you of Shiba Kaien?"

This was all Kuchiki Byakuya's fault. Soul Society ordered him to go and bring back his sister; no one told him to hang around dropping hints that Rukia might like Ichigo for reasons other than the fact that he. Was. **_Ichigo._**

Kuchiki Byakuya had said, "I see. This human looks a lot like **_him._**" And those words had stuck to Ichigo like strawberry jam to Kon's fabric butt.

A lot like who?

A lot like who!

Can you imagine competing with a memory for a woman's love?

The night was **_so dark _**but Rukia's even-darker hair mysteriously found light to glint n as she turned her head so that for one foolish second and for many rational ones afterward Kurosaki Ichigo thought she was a shooting star.

He couldn't see her face, but her eyes glinted too. All of a sudden he was bowled over by the difference in their ages that utterly failed to come between them.

"Ichigo..."

How could he know? Shiba Kaien wasn't just a name, it was a whole person. It was a heart that Rukia toted hither and thither like the world's most awkward shoulder bag. It was Rukia's shame and pride and longing and...oh, emotions she wasn't even aware of were spun through those characters. Shiba Kaien.

Ichigo's rival in romance.

Can you imagine duelling a shadow for a place in a female's heart?

"Ichigo..."

Let's not malign the dead. She thought it, I said it. Kaien was worlds above Ichigo, both metaphorically and metaphysically. A breeze skittered between them, blowing her hair across her cheeks. She postponed her answer by driving her fingers through the black tangles, smoothing agitated strands. The silence roughened with anticipation. To the far right were the blazing lights of Seireitei: like any other, the City of Tranquil Soul was late to bed. Kenpachi of Zaraki, Ukitake Jyuushiro, Kuchiki Byakuya and all the other captains would be sleeping now. There was no one to interfere with Rukia and Ichigo, alone on the bumbling hill near District 2 of the Eastern Rukongai. They were alone...

With each other.

"I know I look like him."

The resemblance went past that. More than the face had screamed 'Kaien' at Rukia when they first met. The stance was similar. The voice, too. Not the timbre...the tone. The vein of terror twitching in his peeved face. In fact the first thing that slapped some sense into Rukia (Kaien died at your hands!) was Ichigo's zanpakutou. Kaien had never wielded anything that big.

"Ichigo."

"Can you stop saying that?" Unlike hers, his garish hair had light falling into it. Black as coffee beans dipped in tar. It may as well have been Kaien sitting next to her, waiting out this moonless night. Sure smelt that way. Sure felt that way.

"Rukia...do I?"

It most certainly was not.

Rukia had taken all of ten pain-staking days to make her decision: Ichigo was not Kaien. Sure there were similarities, but they weren't exact. Ichigo's hair swirled the wrong way. Ichigo's eyes were browner, younger. Ichigo's laugh was bolder, lighter. Ichigo's lips were...

Ahem. They hadn't kissed yet (implying much opportunity on the cards for later) so Rukia couldn't claim to be an authority, but Ichigo's lips looked uncared for. Death had softened Kaien's lips to pink perfection. Rude humanity hung life's reality on Ichigo's.

Rukia loved it.

In his own right, for his own sake, Rukia loved him. Of course Kaien had been loved and so he would continue to be loved right up until it was Rukia's turn to leave her heart behind her spirit-body but Kaien. Was. Dead. And Rukia owed it to him to move on. To fall in love again.

"You don't."

Can you imagine triumphing over insurmountable odds and holding a single, long-stemmed rose in your victorious hand?

Its thorns dig into your flesh but who gives a fuck?

She wants that rose and by damnation she'll have it.

Rukia held her hand out and Ichigo placed a red kiss into her palm. An unexpectedly tender gesture that told her just how deep his fear had run. And just how much more she needed to say to soothe all that fear.

"Kaien-dono means a lot to me, Ichigo. But so do you. For different reasons."

Name one!

"I love you."

Touche.

He dived his head into his palms and the whole of that between the knees he'd drawn up to his chest. Those words had been heating the atmosphere betwixt them intolerably for a while said outloud, a cool, glassy and enormously pleased feeling poured over their heads.

"Rukia..."

"Ichigo, nii-sama can't read my mind. He guessed I had become fond of you because of who you looked like. He guessed incorrectly. Never having known you, he didn't know that I had this many things to like about you," she spread her arms as wie as they would go, and Ichigo peeked, "All yours. Uniquely. Unalterably."

You're too kind. Plenty of people have the same traits and tics and idiosyncracies as this boy. But I suppose putting them together in this particular combination makes them Ichigo.

"Rukia..."

Hold your blasted horses. She's not done yet.

"I know you're not him and I'm glad of it. With Kaien-dono I would ever after share space with his wife, whom he loved at the moment of her death and so can never stop loving."

Just like Ichigo must now share space with Shiba Kaien whom Rukia loved at the moment of his death and so can never. Stop. Loving. It wasn't a full victory for the boy. Rukia had sanctioned him one half of her heart that had previously been entirely given to Kaien. It was good enough for now. Strawberry-babe would see about increasing his ration later on. Because even Kaien with time would have delegated a quieter, passionless love to his deceased wife. A respectful love. A timeless, lifeless love.

There was no way of knowing if Kaien would have then been free to return Rukia's affections, and Ichigo didn't care to know. The knowledge that mattered lay on his lap, rich and dangerous with possibility. Rukia loved him, in the here and now.

"Rukia."

Glinting eyes sought his, but darkness swamped his features. She settled for alighting her hand on his knee to indicate her attentiveness.

"I love you, too."

Baby, of course you do.

Two dark smiles stretched forever in the night, and that was something they needed no illumination to see. Falling in love was by no means the end of their problems, not with Aizen Sousuke acting shitty in the backdrop. But it was a banister they could grip on the tumbling staircase of life. Tripping ever downwards, ever downwards, at least they had company. At least some things were constant, if others were constantly changing.

See.

It's that simple.

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x**

**Dedicated to Beat Crusaders because, it must be pointed out, they deserve it. Based on, in case you didn't watch the anime, Season Three or so's theme song, "Tonight Tonight Tonight". **


End file.
